ELT active segmented mirror

The construction of the ELT is only possible with a segmented primary mirror. Scientists at ESO have developed a test bench called Active Phasing Experiment to study a new phasing technology and a new telescope control system. The key subsystem of this experiment is a scaled down Active Segmented Mirror (ASM) composed of sixty-one hexagonal segments of seventeen millimeters side to side (approximately 100 times smaller than of an ELT segment). Each hexagonal mirror can be controlled in piston, tip and tilt. Here you see the ASM model undergoing test in the laboratory in March 2007